Obama Putting Re-election Campaign Ahead Of Israel's Security

March 11, 2012

Krauthammer: Israel's Existence More Important than Obama
Stopping Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon is more important than Obama's re-election campaign, writes Washington Post's Krauthammer. Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu

Stopping Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon is more important than President Barack Obama's re-election campaign, Washington Post and widely syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer wrote Sunday.

He also revealed that a senior administration official told the newspaper, "We're trying to make the decision to attack as hard as possible for Israel."

The veteran journalist accused President Obama of cheering for Israel at last week's American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference and then stepping an about-face by agreeing "to yet another round of talks with the mullahs" of Iran despite previous "blatant Iranian stalling and unseriousness" on the part of the Ahmadinejad regime.

Krauthammer directly accused President Obama of putting his own campaign for re-election ahead of Israel's security. "Obama wants to get past Nov. 6 without any untoward action that might threaten his re-election," he wrote.

Negotiations between the United Nations nuclear watchdog IAEA and Iran so far have taken on the aspect of a charade, with Tehran speeding up its work to enrich uranium, a key ingredient for a nuclear weapon, at the same time it "talks about talking."

"These negotiations don't just gain time for a nuclear program about whose military intent the IAEA is issuing alarming warnings," according to Krauthammer. "They make it extremely difficult for Israel to do anything about it (while it still can), lest Israel be universally condemned for having aborted a diplomatic solution."

As for talks and economic sanctions, he stated, "Holding talks is not success. Imposing sanctions is not success."

President Obama told AIPAC, "Iran's leaders should have no doubt about the resolve of the United States."

Krauthammer commented, "And then he pursues policies — open-ended negotiations, deceptive promises of tough U.S. backing for Israel, boasts about the efficacy of sanctions, grave warnings about ‘war talk' — meant, as his own official admitted, to stop Israel from exercising precisely that sovereign right to self-protection…

"A fair-minded observer might judge that Israel's desire to not go gently into the darkness carries higher moral urgency than the political future of one man, even if he is president of the United States."